A.H. 36–37.
freedman of ʿOthmān?"[1] "Impossible," they cried; "where will ye stop? It were easier to bale out the floods of the Euphrates."
Renewal of hostilities,
ii. 37 A.H.}
July, 657 A.D.So passed the month; and ʿAlī seeing things. still unchanged, commenced hostilities afresh. He caused proclamation to be made along Muʿāwiya's front, summoning the Syrians to allegiance. But it only made them rally more closely round Muʿāwiya; and a company, girding themselves with their turbans in token of the vow, swore that they would defend him to the death. The warfare thus resumed, daily becoming severer and more embittered, ʿAlī at last made up his mind to bring on a general and decisive battle. Thus, ten days after the renewal of hostilities, both armies drawn out in entire array, fought till the shades of evening fell, neither having got the better. Battle of Ṣiffīn,
11, 12, ii. 37 A.H.
July 29, 30 657 A.D.The following morning, the combat was renewed with greater vigour. ʿAlī posted himself in the centre with the flower of his troops from Medīna; the wings were formed, one of warriors from Al-Baṣra, the other of those from Al-Kūfa. Muʿāwiya had a pavilion pitched upon the field; and there, surrounded by five lines of his sworn bodyguard, watched the day. ʿAmr, with a great weight of horse, bore down upon the Al-Kūfa wing, which gave way; and ʿAlī was exposed to imminent peril, both from thick showers of arrows and from close encounter. Reproaching the men of Al-Kūfa for their cowardice, the Caliph fought bravely, his unwieldy figure notwithstanding, sword in hand, and manfully withstood the charge. Al-Ashtar, at the head of three hundred Readers,[2] led forward the other wing, which fell with fury on Muʿāwiya's "turbaned" bodyguard. Four of its five ranks were cut to pieces, and Muʿāwiya, bethinking himself of flight, had already called for his horse, when a martial couplet flashed on his mind, and he held his ground. ʿAmr stood by him;—"Courage to-day," he cried, "to-morrow victory." The fifth rank repelled the
- ↑ ʿOthmān's freedman was one of his followers slain at Medīna in the final onslaught of the conspirators. The life of ʿAmmār, son of the bondwoman Sumeiya, was forfeit for this lesser crime, much more for the assassination of the Caliph. Such was Muʿāwiya's argument.
- ↑ Readers or Reciters of the Korʾān, those, namely, who, having it by heart (Ḥāfiz), were able to repeat it from beginning to end. They were the most fanatical part of the Muslim forces, answering as they did closely to the Ghazies of our day.
